Congregation Ados Israel

215 Pearl Street

December 29, 2002|By Anne Farrow

The tall, graceful Georgian Revival building has had a varied history in its nearly 80 years, but manages always to serve the needs of its time. In a downtown neighborhood that has changed completely, that's saying something. Iris admires the structure's smallness, and the way ``it seems kind of out of step with downtown Hartford. It just stands there, alone. Nothing else looks like it.''

Oddly familiar yet often prompting the question, ``Where is that?'' the little landmark faces the Goodwin Hotel's block-filling backside on Pearl Street. Once the First Unitarian Congregational Church, it was sold to Congregation Ados Israel in 1962 after the synagogue lost its home to an urban renewal project that cost the city a historic neighborhood and access to its waterfront. (In exchange, it got Constitution Plaza. Oy.)

David Ransom, who has taught and written about Hartford's architectural history, sees the building as symbolic of the city's once-great Jewish presence. ``The remarkable thing is that it's still here,'' he says, touching the painting almost affectionately. ``It survives from an era when it was part of the streetscape, and now the streetscape, most of it, is gone.''

Survivor indeed. Sold to the telephone company in 1986 when the synagogue closed, the former temple was sold last summer to Pearl Street neighbor TheaterWorks. The theater company is assembling a plan for the interior renovation of the building, which retains its Hebrew lettering and the date when the original congregation was founded, 1872.

The right word for this building is slender. Unlike the massive 19th century hotel diagonally across the street, or the modern skyscraper opposite, the former Ados Israel has space around it and above it, as if the two faiths it served did not need to dominate their landscape. In its modesty, there is room for belief, and prayer, and now, a new future.